A/N: Okay, I know that this isn't The Fate That Binds Us, but I promise that that will come soon; I just had the ide floating around and needed it written down…

Zim huffed in irritation as his psychology teacher—a tall, lanky man in his forties—proceeded to the return to the front of the classroom to continue where the lesson had been interrupted. He attempted to mumble something, but something had inhibited him from speaking: duct tape. Yes, the dreaded silver adhesive once again bound his mouth, the long, fat strip mocking him as its notable durability had his mouth clamped and his voice unheard. He felt the burn of a hateful glare shoot at him from across the classroom. He turned his head to the left and was amused to see a vehement Dib glowering at him with narrowed brown eyes, who had met the same fate; another thick strip of silver had been placed over his mouth. Zim tried to laugh malevolently, but the barrier the tape constructed only muffled the sound, which wasn't quite as fulfilling. This happened frequently, the two would argue to the point that speech had to be inhibited, so the teacher often stepped in to "assuage" the problem…The overly dressed teacher continued on in his lesson that went unheard to Zim. He linked his three long fingered hands together, propping his elbows on his desk, and returned his sight to the front of the room.

Zim put his lips, were they not concealed by tape, to his own interwoven hands as he sat in his infernal desk, which had been quite uncomfortable, at the back of the classroom. As soon as lunch had ended, he had been contemplating his actions, tactfully mapping out each movement he would perform in order to gather the information he needed on emotions and exploit them to finally rule this abhorred pile of filth! He had the device to isolate the emotion of a target, and the target herself, but the next step was to continue observing her and registering each reaction and emotion she allowed to release from her very being. He could delve into the meaning of such meager emotions later in his lab, but what was more imperative at this moment was actually how he would be able to collect the emotions from her. His squiddly spooch had stopped at lunch that day, thinking that she was really about to murder him. To beat his superior Irken body with her raw fists and leave his mangled body for the scavengers. He shivered at the thought. She was truly terrifying. And there was no doubt that commanding her to obey and forcibly let him scan her and her emotions would only result in a premature death for the Irken invader. So, his mind reeled into a string of ideas of how to obtain her information without her noticing…

"…And that concludes today's lesson, I hope at least one of you learned something from it," the geeky teacher said, "Now then, it's time I inform you on your new project, but this isn't an ordinary project…"

Zim barely paid attention as his mind continued to calculate and play out methods that could result in acceptable conclusions on how he could succeed in his plans.

"This project," the putrid teacher explained, "will require effort." A resounding of groans emanated from the mouths of the repugnant teenagers that filled the room, "Now, now students, it may require effort, but I'm giving you a vast amount of freedom. In this project, you'll need to find a topic and research how relates to psychology. You may also choose to either present it or write a ten page paper," another chorus of unhappy groans, "your choice."

Zim barely registered the teaching unit's words as his conniving mind was brutally interrupted by the blaring sound of the bell, signaling that class had ended. He proceeded to gather his supplies from the ground as the students fled the classroom, yet when he raised his head he saw Dib, who stood proudly, arching one eyebrow in a mocking matter. Dib began to speak, but only muffled sounds came from him, and in realization, he dramatically ripped the loathsome tape from his face, only to have tears form in his eyes from the painful action. He cursed silently and then faced Zim once again.

"I bet you don't even know what your project is going to be on yet, Zim." he seethed out every word, lacing it with hateful malice, "But rest assured, the human race will triumph! My project will completely thwart your own, and I'll show you that the human race is infallible!" Zim stood up, scorning Dib with his superior height, and he repeated similar actions, histrionically grabbing the end of the tape and freeing himself from its confounding barrier. Unlike Dib; however, he didn't react to the horrid pain that rushed through his body that almost made him cry out like an infant. Instead he gave out a hearty and malicious laugh.

"Ha! Foolish Earth creature, with your mind so puny and head so large…" Dib opened his mouth to object but Zim hastily continued, "Zim will have victory in this project like many others before it! Zim will definitely outdo your pathetic attempts to rival my genius!" Dib scowled, and left without another word, waiting for him to leave first, Zim finally strode out of the door and to his next class. He wanted to contemplate exactly what his project was going to entail, but then decided against it, he had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.

*0*

"H-here!" a blonde, female teacher sputtered before cowering away from a certain violet-haired teenager. Gaz took the pink slip of paper in her hands, no doubt it was sent from the office. She observed it carefully, noticing that the bolded word "detention" had been circled repeatedly. She sighed, knowing that this was to arrive sooner or later. Usually her beatings of students didn't go unpunished, yet she was surprised that they had given it to her so late in the day. Usually she had time to rearrange plans that she had made for herself when she was aware that she had detention, but this time they had sent it during the last class of the day. Superb, now she couldn't go straight to Bloaty's after Skool like she had wanted to. She grimaced and held the paper roughly in her hand before letting it fall to her desk. She wanted to punch something…someone, but she restrained herself, after all, that's exactly what got her in detention in the first place. Although, she couldn't blame herself for her actions, the kid had it coming.

She had sat on the roundabout in the plaza outside the lunchroom, eating and playing the latest Vampire Piggy Hunter on her GameSlave peacefully, attempting to avoid her dweeb of a brother. She had sat on the roundabout, wanting to be alone and play without an idiotic, nagging voice in her ear complain about Zim through the entire period like he did every damn day. She was quite content in her state of mesmerized gaming when she suddenly heard a lurid "no" come from behind her. She had identified the shrieking voice easily, Zim. She cursed inwardly; his annoying voice had put a lapse in her concentration, making her carelessly lose a life, she growled. In that moment, she felt a presence come towards her and she ignored it, assuming that the person was simply walking by, but when the presence sat down next to her, she glanced to see a blonde boy with green eyes sitting closely to her; a little too close. She discreetly scooted away from him, continuing to play her game, but she felt him scoot closer to her, so she roughly demanded, "What do you want?"

"What?" he accused, "I can't sit here? I believe this is a public place, and that I have a right to sit here."

What are you, a lawyer? She growled inwardly, deciding to say nothing. She focused on her game, ignoring the fact that she could feel the boy inching closer to her; now she was getting irritated.

"You know, I happened to spot you across the skoolyard, and I must say, you are a mystery…" he commented softly, speaking very close to her ear. She jerked violently to the side, her back to him and tried to remain focused on her game. He was hitting on her! The realization was quick to notice, and she hoped that he would leave her alone if she just ignored him, but then she felt a hand on her left shoulder. "What'cha playing?" he asked as he pulled her frame towards him and then placed his hand on the GameSlave, tilting it so he could see the game. She heard the sound of her character dying, her last life! The rage had built up inside her and she lashed out. The boy never saw it coming…

She rubbed her temples at the very memory, that foolish boy. Did he even know who she was? Obviously not, or he wouldn't be in the nurse's office with a broken nose. The student body, as well as the faculty, knew not to mess with her. Though disciplinary measures were taken, they were only a formality; she knew that the faculty was afraid of her and wouldn't dare to displease her, if not the Skool Administration had ordered the skool to follow through with their punishments. She'd go to detention all right, but no one would say anything if she took out her GameSlave, or her cellphone. Damn, she could do whatever the hell she wanted and no one would say a goddamn thing, because she was Gaz Membrane, darkness incarnate.

The bell rang, signaling the end of skool, finally another day of pointless learning done. She grimaced as she got out of her desk, getting her things ready to leave. When she was finished she gripped the pink slip again, reading the room number that detention was to be served in today. She carefully read the number 202, before crumpling up the piece of paper and tossing it nonchalantly in the trash. She exited the classroom and headed to her locker, pleased when students kept their distance from her. This skool was small when compared to the students that inhabited the hallways every day, she was pretty sure that the skool was violating fire code with all these students. With all these people, one couldn't even get by without someone rubbing against you, but that was the advantage of being Gaz. Everyone avoided her, so she was able to get by with ease, and she was pleased with it.

After another minute, she made it to her locker, turning her locks combination and opening it with ease. Quickly detaching the mechanism from its place, she opened her locker, placing unused and useless books inside. As this was occurring she felt the strangest thing, she had noticed it before, faintly, but dismissed it. Now it was stronger and pierced her very being. The force of it was cryptic, she felt very wary. It was almost as if someone was…watching her…

"Hey Gaz!" a voice called to her which made her cringe at the sound of it. She turned her head to see her dorky brother smiling with an abnormally large smile, his large rimmed glasses slipping for a moment before he adjusted them back to the bridge of his nose. She still felt the mysterious force on her and she turned the other way, looking around in the less crowded hallway, trying to espy the source of the ominous feeling. "Gaz?" she turned back to her brother, deciding to ignore the strange feeling. "So, are we heading off to Bloaty's then?"

"Can't," she replied, "detention."

"Again?!" he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Gaz, that's the third time this week…"

"I know." she responded while closing her locker, placing the lock it the slot and fastening it.

"You know Dad's not going to be happy…"

"Dad's not even going to notice, he's barely home anyway!"

"Jesus Gaz, you can't go beating up people whenever you want, what happened this time!?"

"He was hitting on me."

"Well, I suppose…No, no! Gaz, you don't have to use violence to answer your problems." Gaz scoffed.

"What are you, my mother?" That hit a discordant chord in both of them, letting pain be the only thing on their minds. Gaz knew it was a low blow, and it hurt both of them, but she couldn't stand it when Dib chastised her for mediocre things like this, it wasn't his job, it was a mother's, and theirs was gone.

"Look, I'm sorry," Dib apologized, "but you're the one who told me to not act upon my emotions." A dissonant chord played in Gaz's mind as she jabbed her hands out, clutching her brother's shirt and slammed him into the lockers. She looked up at him through intimidating, malicious amber eyes that seemed to glow in vehemence.

"Don't you dare compare me to you!" she hissed her scowl deepening as she brought him forward and slammed his body into the lockers again. Dib whimpered in pain as he stared wide eyed at his angered sister. "Unlike you, I have control over my emotions and allow them to be expressed when I so choose to! I don't act unless I feel like it! I can regulate and show my emotions when I believe it is necessary to do so! I don't let my emotions control me, I control me, you got that!?" Dib was grateful that the hallway was empty; he didn't want to cause a scene like this, especially in public. Too afraid to speak and invoke her wrath, he nodded instead, to which she let go of him. "Go home Dib." She added before making her way to room 202, leaving a scared Dib to walk home alone.

*0*

Zim had been watching her ever since skool had been let out. He was determined to complete the task of observing her and conceded to cautiously watch her without giving himself away. He had seen what had transpired between her and her brother and was very intrigued. Gaz was right; she did indeed seem to have control over her emotions, that much was clear from the device, but not letting emotions control her? He highly doubted that, no human could be that trained to inhibit actions such as those controlled by emotion, she would soon know after he finds that one emotion that can control the human mind!

He knew exactly where she was going, and he didn't even have to hear the conversation with her brother to know, since he had known earlier that day. He remembered how the student that was delivering her pink slip "got lost" on the way to the classroom, and gave Zim the wonderful opportunity to find out where she was going and observe his little human guinea pig.

He got to room 202 before her, rushing inside, seeing that no teacher had been residing in the room. He realized that it would be too suspicious to have detention as well with her. She also would be able to detect that he was watching her and then his plan would be foiled. He grimaced and darted his eyes around the classroom, noticing a large cabinet on the side wall. He smirked and made his way hastily to the wall of the classroom, opening the metal fortress up, feeling victorious when he noticed that no few supplies had been placed into it yet. Suddenly, his acute hearing detected footsteps approaching and, with celerity, he dove into the cabinet, quietly shutting the door, but slightly leaving it open so that he would have a, albeit restricted, view of the classroom. He watched silently as a teacher walked in, followed by Gaz who incidentally took a seat in a desk in the middle of his view! He smiled wickedly, trying to conceal a rumble of laughter that threatened to spill from his throat. He watched as the distraught teacher left the room, and didn't return. He watched her silently as she pulled out her GameSlave and began to silently play.

She remained like that for a few minutes, and Zim became irritated, he silently retrieved the emotion reading device from his PAK, holding the maroon piece of machinery in his hand. He looked back out to the dispassionate female and activated the scanner in his contact lenses by blinking hard and he ran his eyes over her body, up till the end of the vibrant violet hair on her scalp. He then impatiently watched as the device flashed a few times before showing the words, "no emotion detected" in glowing crimson letters. Zim resisted the urge to growl as he tried again, but the outcome remained the same. He then continued to observe her through the small opening, hoping that she'd display some emotion soon.

*0*

Gaz couldn't fight that cryptic feeling that had been creeping inside her like before. She wanted to ignore it, but it wouldn't simply leave her be. It was as if she felt the burning of eyes trail up her and it made her skin crawl. She tried to leave it alone, but it seemed to grow stronger and stronger with each grueling minute. After about forty-five minutes, she paused her game, and glanced around the room, attempting to find the source of that burning stare. Her eyes fixated on the metal cabinet on the opposite side of the room, and her cold glare didn't cease for a second.

Zim tried not to squeal as he met her amber eyes between the opening of the cabinet's doors. He dared not to even breathe as he glanced down nervously at the device which glowed the word, "suspicious" at him menacingly. He also had to resist the urge to jump when she abruptly rose from her desk and, with her GameSlave at her side, began to make her way towards him.

Not good, he thought to himself.

Gaz continued to walk to the cabinet, her mind fixated on the heap of metal. She knew that that ominous feeling was coming from there, and she didn't know why, but she needed to know what it was. It was more of a curiosity than anything else, but she was also getting irritated by the strange force that seemed to enjoy being around her. She finally approached her target and stared at the cold, tan colored metal container before her. She eyed it suspiciously for a long moment before she lifted a hand to the silver colored handle.

Zim couldn't believe this, had he truly failed this early on? He shut his eyes tightly hoping that the death she'd give him would at least be quick.

Her fingers were about to clasp around the handle when she heard: "Oh, d-detention is o-over G-Gaz, you can g-go home!" Gaz's eyes drifted to the same teacher who had brought her in the room, his eyes darting away from her frightening eye contact. After a brief moment of thought, Gaz let her hand drop to her side, before making her way back to her desk to collect her things and she left the room without uttering a word.

After a minute or two, to make sure Gaz was gone, Zim bursted out of the cabinet, leaving a surprised teacher trip as he was trying to walk out of the classroom. Jumping over him, Zim quickly escaped, continuing his task of observing her.

*0*

Now she was angry, she could practically feel her skin scorch from that bizarre force that didn't seem content with leaving her alone, but she knew now that it wasn't a force, it was a person. Someone was following her. At first she dismissed the idea, but when she heard slight rustlings and quick, yet quiet footsteps behind her, she knew that someone was stupid enough to be stalking her. She picked up her pace on the sidewalk before sharply turning the corner of the street, a fence hiding her from espying eyes. She quickly hid behind a large blue postal service box, waiting patiently for the person who decided to trail her. It didn't take long until she heard silent footsteps come closer. Just a little more...she thought to herself as a foot came into her view. Gaz swiftly grabbed the shirt of her assailant, shoving him against the fence and quickly to her surprise, it was Zim who she had caught. Anger boiled inside her at the notion.

"Why were you following me Zim!?" she growled, her amber orbs piercing his contacted ones.

Zim was astonished, he couldn't believe that she had found him out and caught him before his plan could even begin! He was also terrified, because he could see the malice in her glowing amber eyes, which, strangely, intrigued him. "Follow you?" he insisted. "Zim is doing no such thing! No, why he is on his way to his base!"

"Nice try, but I'm not an idiot, I know that your base is in the other direction!"

"Is it?" Zim tried to act dumb, but it wasn't going to get him anywhere. She was furious and demanded answers.

"Why have you been following me!?" she pressed again, raising her right hand in the air before curling her slim fingers into a fist. Zim racked his mighty Irken brain for answers, trying to come up with a believable excuse, and it seemed that he would soon meet his doom, but that old Zim was so clever and so smart, that he thought up a lie so he wouldn't be torn apart!

"It's for a project!" he exclaimed before Gaz could swing her deadly fist. She paused, raising a curious eyebrow to his statement.

"A project? For what class?" she probed, doubtful of his explanation. The green Irken smirked, chuckling as he responded:

"Psychology of course! Even ask your brother, he's in the same class as me!" She knew then that he spoke the truth; Dib had been going about his psychology project for about half the day, annoying her with his promises of making his project greater than that of Zim's in order to show that the human race was superior. Her grip loosened on him, and finally, she let Zim go. Though he was speaking the truth now, she still wasn't convinced.

"Pray tell, what exactly is this project on?" she asked skeptically, folding her arms and shifting her weight onto one side. Zim smiled and with confidence he continued his lie.

"Well, I want to see the effects that videogames have on humans, physical and mental effects. And I have chosen you as my source of information because I believe that you are the most reliable subject since you clearly are more skilled in the videogames than anyone else on this rock." He took pause for a moment eyeing her expression, which remained unchanged. Gaz looked at him in the eyes, trying to see if she could detect any filthy lies come from his mouth, but he seemed to at least mostly speaking the truth, so she sighed and conceded with him.

"Why were you following me then?"

"I needed to observe you as you are so that I could receive credibly information." He stated arrogantly, which irritated Gaz even more. She huffed and continued to return home.

"Because I don't have to and I'm not getting anything out of it." Gaz stated plainly, which made Zim scowl at her. He knew that Gaz wouldn't do anything unless it benefited her in some way. He fumed for a moment, refusing to give in, but knowing that she was imperative to his mission.

"What would it take to get you to help me?" he sputtered with some difficulty. She hummed to herself, pondering the possibilities. She took her sweet time, enjoying how much Zim squirmed in impatience.

"The new Vampire Piggy Hunter game comes out three weeks from now, I want it, but it will only be available for The GameSlave six, I only have the five. So, in exchange for helping you, I want the GameSlave six with the new Vampire Piggy Hunter game." Zim was astonished, did she not know how much monies those two things would cost!? Of course she did that conniving little worm! Zim grimaced, considering his options, that he had no option but to accept her request. He agreed, and, with a nod she consented to assisting him with his, "project".

"So, when do we get started?" Zim pried.

"If you really want you can ask me questions or whatever at lunch tomorrow."

"Questions?" he pondered as he continued to walk with her. She paused and stared at him as if he was a stigma. "What?"

"I don't know, like a survey or whatever. Questions that pertain to your project dumbass!" She seethed, taking quick, long strides so that she could get away from him as soon as possible. Zim watched her carefully as she walked off; scanning his eyes over her body once more and retrieving the device from his PAK. "Annoyed" was the word that flashed on the black screen. Zim grinned evilly at this. Indeed, Zim did have questions that needed to be asked, and he also had a planet to conquer.

A/N: Hi guys, reviews make me motivated, so if you want more chapters faster, I pretty much am guilt into updating when you guys demand it…

So, what'd ya think?

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.